somewhat disappointed with Regal Princess

Regal Princess Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 92

Overall rating:

3 out of 5
Verified Review
Regal Princess

12 Night Grand Mediterranean (Barcelona To Venice)

Sail date: July 01, 2014

Ship: Regal Princess

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: A517

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 10 years ago

Review summary

somewhat disappointed.  Ship was so crowded and passengers acted like animals in the horizon court eating areas.  Part of the problem is that there are so many food stations that you have to constantly going from serving area to different serving area in order to complete your plate.  The areas need to be better organized and space not as wide whereby people can come at you in different directions with their plates in hand bumping into you.  I couldn't stand to go to the food courts and tried to go to the dining rooms for meals as much as possible to avoid the rush but dining room meal times are limited and when going off ship nearly everyday I had no choice but to use Horizon court.

Staff also needs more coaching in areas of table clean up and setting up in horizon courts areas as they seem to do a lot of socializing with each other.

My room steard provided excellent service but for a 13 night cruise my sheets were only changed twice, what happened to the every 3 days???

Entertainment was nice, the ships production company put on excellent shows but I was put off by what was to be 'family' entertainment.  for example one comedian, Irish, went beyond what I thought was 'family' rated always talking about male parts and sex.  Also making jokes constantly about the Irish and their alcohol problem.  I had my 14 yrs old daughter with me and I felt that this type of entertainment which such ethnic sterotyping is exactly not what you want your children to repeat.

also some of the social staff picked on members in the audience calling them name and just didn't know when to draw the line between what was insulting and what was going overboard.

I think that there are more staff people needed for cleaning of ship and serving in the food courts.

Excursions are quite expensive but they did organize us and got us moving on to the buses quickly.

There is constant selling of everything water when leaving ship to drinks at dinner etc.  this is how they make their money but it is neverending.

I would cruise Princess again as I have sailed with them and other lines and find them to be superior to the others.  But I will say that I was somewhat disappointed that the cruise was not the top notch service that I usually find with Princess.

 

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5
horizon food court is too congested and needs organization.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5
Ships production company were very good.

Children's Programs

n/a

Service and Staff

3 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
experienced cruising in hot climates and booked inside room. set cooling system at max. and had a nice cool room. it was wonderful. new ship, all new bedding, towel etc. very nice.

Ship tip

expect long lines and crowds in the horizon court.

Ports of call

Barcelona, Spain Did not visit port

day we arrived there was a taxi strike so we did not leave ship. new passengers should have been able to board ship and wait in a waiting zone instead of having to wait in terminal waiting zone. this created long lines and short tempers.

Toulon, France Did not visit port

we took city bus int.o the town and nothing to do there. took bus back to ship and had relaxing day

Livorno (Florence & Pisa), Italy

3 out of 5
busy day, purchased shuttle service and went on own. beautiful cities but like the rest of Europe extremely crowded in the summer.

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

5 out of 5
uses online excursion operator 1/2 price of princess and had local guides and it was great and as expected extremely crowded.

Naples, Italy

5 out of 5
pompeii on own, bus to train station and 40 min. ride to site. needs water and sun screen. not to be missed.

Mykonos, Greece

5 out of 5
walked to beautiful beach from ship and enjoyed refreshing swim and then ice cream at cafe.

Istanbul, Turkey

5 out of 5
been to city before so did sights on own. Hagia Sophia a must, expect crowds and lines. most venders take u.s. but museum only takes turkish money.

Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey

3 out of 5
did not go as temperature expected to be above 100 degrees. port shops same as Istanbul, better shopping in Istanbul.

Piraeus (Athens), Greece

3 out of 5
princess excursion to Acropolis disappointing as very little time at site and no time to go into the museum which houses everything of importance.
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1 Comment

WeCruiseToo    10 years ago

Thanks for the review. We’re sailing aboard Regal Princess later this year (in the Caribbean). We’ve been looking forward to the new buffet layout; the “funnel you one way through a cage” design used on many previous Princess ships is our least favorite by far so we’ll see how this compares.