Not for us

Regal Princess Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

printerguy402

Contributor Level: Captain

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 8

Helpful Votes: 228

Overall rating:

2 out of 5

7 Night Western Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: February 07, 2016

Ship: Regal Princess

Cabin type: Balcony

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

After 7 cruises on Royal Caribbean ships and 1 Norwegian, we are spoiled by all the entertainment and first class shows by those two. That's just us, most everybody I talked to on the Regal just loved the ship, and it was either their 2nd or more cruises on there or planned on being there again.

I very seldom write a negative review because I despise negativity but I guess my disappointment was a little too much.

I was disappointed for the lack entertainment in the piazza or the time in-between acts. Especially during the day there was little going on. We are use to something going on all day on other ships. Was really disappointed on port days. We like to stay on the ship and relax and be entertained as do many people. There was no entertainment, nothing to do. I went for my 3 mile walk on the track and it was closed down.

Like I said, it's just us. We plan and wait a year for this special week and pay a lot of money to be entertained and like to be by our selves. We don't want to go with a group of family or friends and that's what it seemed to be the trick on this ship. Most were in groups playing cards or reading books. We just want to do something different once a year and get away from normal routine. If we want to read or play card we can stay home to do that.

For this 70 year old I'm afraid it's not for us. It's a beautiful ship but for us was just too boring. We miss the broadway shows, professional acts, piano players that interact with the audience, go from one act to another on another part of the ship, the parades and on and on.

I really hate to say this but for 4 of the 7 days we dreaded the coming day. The highlight of the day for me was going between the hot tub and walking on the track. My wife's knees are real bad so she can't walk much and can't do the tenders. She did get off at Cozumel just to walk to the shops and back mostly to relieve boredom.

The crew for the most part was very pleasant, loved Ana our nightly dinner waitress. The food for the most part wasn't quite up to par with the other cruises.

I'm happy for everyone that loves this ship, after a day I'm already starting to book the Allure of the Seas or one of the new Royal ships.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Evening dining good, but not the best. Ana was great. Breakfast at 7:30 didn't care for cheap scrambled eggs, bacon or sausages compared to other ships. The pastry shop was very good. Best layout of all ships.

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

Was extremly disappointed on port days when there was no entertainment and they closed down the walking track for the day, my only entertainment. I know things have to be painted etc. but maybe at the end of the cruise when everybody's off ship.

Entertainment

1 out of 5

We're use to high end entertainmemt and entertainmemt from morning to night even on port days. We've never been so disappointed and bored. If you call selling or seminars entertainment, well, we're not into them.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

5 out of 5

Traveler Photos

8 Comments

cruisereckoning 4 years ago

Thanks for the review

Thumbs Up 0

Flag

JusMe 8 years ago

Printerguy, your loyalty program level from RCI converts over to Celebrity. If you have not done one of the Solstice Class ships I think you will like the ship. I do not think any ship has as much to do as the Oasis class ship.

Thanks for a great balanced review.

Thumbs Up 2

Flag

BDRebel 8 years ago

I agree with John on this one -- the part that I loved about Princess was its toned-down atmosphere. I agree that it would be nice with more Piazza shows, and possibly Broadway (or West End) shows, but for me, it was great and will return to Princess (after trying Celebrity and RCI).

Thumbs Up 1

Flag

Kennicott 8 years ago

I can understand printerguy402 and spouse's position on this. We've got a few years on them but my wife has the same problem his wife does in that arthritis in the knees makes shore excursions very difficult for her. I'm still able to hack some of the tougher ones but even for me the days of small ships, exotic ports where we tackle a dormant volcano by going to the top are in the past. So, we have began to find advantages here and there on the larger ships, stuff I never believed before we would have liked or done especially for her since she stays on board a lot more than I do. For instance, on the two larger Princess ship the Lotus Spa has something called the "enclave" not cheap but she loves it. We have been on two Regal's and one Royal, just got off the Regal 8 days ago. I found that activity onboard the Regal was ample but not stuff I cared for. One of my favorite cruise experiences is the enrichment lectures. I was very displeased on the first segment when there were none. What they do mostly is have events which amount to sales pitches of stuff they sell, like art works, watches, jewelry, wine sales, and the list goes on and on. In my opinion they lack quality lectures dealing with the area of the world the ship was in. I was going to complain to Princess about that but then on the second segment they had an excellent enrichment lecture. Unfortunately they confined his presentations to a small venue and didn't publish them much, although the audience when they found out about him, really liked it. In the past Princess has done a pretty good job with finding good lectures, this often makes a lasting impression of the voyage on me. I have a hunch that enrichment lectures on a sea day might detract too much from art auctions, the casino, wine tasting and other money raising events. What he doesn't point out about the theatre shows is what I detest. We don't attend the theatre productions very much anymore in order to see the comics, jugglers, and dance entertainment groups. Mostly because we do not care for the crowded theatre in the evenings where some of the rows have close to 30 seats in them; many people come very early and grab the isle seats compelling those coming later to squish by the knees of as many as 13 people to get to a open seat, furthermore, these people are reluctant to stand when someone walks by and there is not much more than a few inches between their knees and the seat in front. I didn't find any difficulty at all in getting my 2.5 to 3.5 miles a day in. The Regal and Royal have excellent fitness centers, I never had to wait for a elliptical and the treadmills were even more available. As far as the up high walking/running track I never found that crowded or not open, even on the day they had the 5K cancer awareness fund raiser walk. printerguy402 says they are going back to the larger RCCL ships. On this last voyage we were in port a lot with the "Allure of the Seas" 225,000 gross tons. It is my understanding they offered have a lot more variety in the way of entertainment, including being able to get assigned seats for the big shows. I made friends with a nice couple from Ontario. They mentioned they were on the Allure recently. She loved it, her husband hated it. We aren't going to try it out as we are getting too long in the tooth to experiment with other lines. We do love the perks we have earned. Free laundry, free internet and much more are hard to ignore, from reading reviews and discussing other ships and lines with people, it appears to me that alternative advantages of lines over the three we have been using for "ever", HAL (HAL has got a huge balcony cigar smoking debacle going right now so they don't count), Regent and Princess, is like splitting hairs.

Thumbs Up 1

Flag

Johngold 8 years ago

I enjoy Princess for the reasons you did not. That's why each line offers something different for each cruiser. I also enjoyed NCL for the give and take with the entertainers all day.

I have not cruised on RCCL but I hear that it's quite fun and busy. I may take on cruise with them just to see the huge ships.

I hope you enjoy future cruises.

Thumbs Up 1

Flag

GTVCRUISER 8 years ago

I cruise RCCL , Holland , Princess, Carnival , NCL they are all good

Thumbs Up 1

Flag

printerguy402 8 years ago

Amen Crusin Tim, that's why we try different ships, I'm leaning between Celebrity & back to the tried and true R.C. next year and maybe a year later a Holland or something different again. I hear so many people stay with one line because of points etc. I think they're missing a lot by not trying different lines. Even though it was an error, was also a learned trip. I never realized how different cruise lines can be. I never regret something bad to me because life is an adventure and learning experience. keep cruisin CrusinTim.

Thumbs Up 1

Flag

CrusinTim 8 years ago

Fair enough of a review printerguy!!! Some like constant entertainment and some just like to relax and kick back. As you know, cruising is trial and error. Sounds like the Regal was a error for you. Hope your next cruise is more to your liking!! :)

Thumbs Up 1

Flag

Other reviews of this sailing

Awesome Cruise!

Mid winter get-away

Well done Regal Princess.