Regal Princess Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,790 reviews

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Review for Canada & New England Cruise on Regal Princess
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shoreduck
6-10 Cruises • Age 30s

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Value for Money
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Additional details

Sail Date: Sep 2019
Cabin: Deluxe Balcony

I chose this cruise for the itinerary. I had cruised on NCL Gem with the exact itinerary several years prior and wanted my daughter to experience it with us again. We wanted to try the Princess line, as we had experienced NCL, Celebrity, Carnival and HAL. The pricing for a deluxe balcony and interior cabin were about what we had paid for a recent Celebrity cruise to Bermuda. Given the price and reputation of Princess, I had high expectations. Sadly, those expectations were dashed from start to finish. Embarkation was delayed two hours due to a coast guard inspection and compounded by the manner of trying to throttle the number of guests once the line got moving. The Ocean Medallion nonsense was maddening. Do yourself a favor and ignore the technology, print out your boarding pass. Wifi is blocked in the terminal so you cant bring up the pass on your phone when you arrive. One large piece of luggage never came to the cabin, we had to retrieve at front desk, one wheel was broken and the luggage tag was removed. The food in the main dining rooms was sub par. only two dining room meals the entire trip were up to snuff, both filet mignon based. several meals had inedible entrees (including two nights we ordered the curtis stone curated entrees). the lobster tail was more like an over sized shrimp dish, not an appropriate size for an entree. No dish was particularly warm either. Wait staff were generally good, but the hostess and seating manager were a bit snippy. The Crown Grill was quite good and well worth the $29 up charge. A good size Lobster tail was available as an add on to any steak for an extra $10. The afternoon tea and royal tea were worthwhile if you like that sort of thing. Room service was prompt.

The entertainment was weak. The dancers were of average ability, which made the Born to Dance show tedious to watch. The Fiera show was better, with colorful sets and costumes, but the lead male singer was not strong. Two female and other male singers were talented. There was prerecorded music for the shows which was a letdown, the orchestra only played with the singer (an American Idol finalist, who had a Vegas lounge like act on two nights - one too many). The comedian was not very funny, he had a rambling, unfocused set I could have skipped. The main band played in the "piazza" which is the lobby, not in a club with a dance floor. The schedule had the same acts in the same locations every night. Most if not all of the bar areas are open to the walk path on each deck, with even the nightclub set up like a pass thru hallway, so I didn't feel like the entertainment venues were distinct or special. You feel as if you are just passing through, not like other lines that have multiple rooms and clubs with distinct spaces and functions (for example - NCL's BB King Blues Club).

It was low energy entertainment environment every night, wrapping up around 11:30 every night (piano player at one bar played until a little later). The nightclub was empty every night. I'm no night owl, but it was too subdued at night across the ship to feel like you were on a fun vacation.

Cabin Review

Deluxe Balcony

Cabin DC

A deluxe balcony cabin in good shape, smallish balcony, mattress and pillows leave something to be desired. There is a large hanging closet area outside of the bathroom, but I did not like the area being open - you see the clothes coming in the room and out of the bathroom which is messy looking without doors. Also, the night before we came home, the empty hangers were clacking around and woke us up. We had to tie them up to stop the noise.

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