Great weather and ports but there were a few shipboard issues

Item: Regal Princess
Rating: 4.1
Author: jdnewman1273

Regal Princess Cruise Review to Caribbean

jdnewman1273

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 41

Overall rating:

4.1 out of 5

14 Night Caribbean East/West Adventurer (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: February 03, 2019

Ship: Regal Princess

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: R429

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

Princess has been talking about the Medallion experience for the last few years and this was the first Medallion cruise I have been on. The concept is a good one, however this program is still in it's infancy. Princess is still giving out both a cruise card and the medallion because I just don't think they trust the system yet. Many staff, e.g. bar and food staff, still don't believe that the system works (either a training issue or based on their experience with it) and still write down food/drink orders on paper. We got the medallions shipped to us ahead of embarkation and it speeded up that process, but onboard, all four of us had to have the ship replace the Medallions with new ones because they were not working properly (IDs, opening cabin door, ship locations, etc). The smartphone apps (OceanReady, OceanNow, OceanCompass, OceanView) are all immature and should have been combined into one single app rather than four different ones (I didn't even download the gambling or other game apps). Location seemed to work once the medallions were replaced but some of the drink and food ordering capabilities did not work in most locations on the ship --- those were supposed to make cruising easier.. Just order where you are and someone will bring it to you. Ooooops!!! My final comment on the apps is that the whole idea of a vacation like this is to be able to get away from things - to quote Princess: "Come back new". Carrying my smartphone around on the ship to fight with these apps isn't something that makes me come back new!!! I was also hoping to be able to have a silicone bracelet that I could wear around my wrist so I didn't have to wear a card around my neck. Instead, I ended up wearing a medallion (in a two inch square case) and a card around my neck. And by the way, you can't simply put a hole in the cards anymore to put them on a clip because they now have an embedded chip in them. Princess offered $50 and $60 metal bracelets and necklaces or fancy clips to hold the medallion but where was the $5 silicone bracelet? That would have made my life better.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

No complaints about the food, however my wife and I both had the unlimited liquor/soda package which basically gives you about as much liquor (under $10) as you want (beer or wine). My wife wanted a Diet Sprite one day and they wanted to charge $2 because they had to open a can of soda. When we explained which drink package we had the bar brought out a list of "exclusions". I understand the bar personnel have rules to follow so we went to the hospitality desk. There were several stupid explanations that ultimately made no sense ("we have to keep track of soda that we open"). Yes but you would open as many bottles of Heineken as I asked for and would charge someone $5-8 if they did not have the package. Basically, Princess was being stupid and had no real way of resolving this problem.

Sabatini's Italian Trattoria

3 out of 5

In and of itself, Sabatini's is a nice place to have an Italian meal. Having said that, most people have a favorite place where they live for Italian food. There are many nights when Sabatini's is nearly empty (as opposed to the steak house). My own thought is that Sabatini's should be converted into a multi-use restaurant... a few nights as Italian, one night the Crab Shack, another night something else....another night something else... I dont have the statistics to show Princess, just my observations from being on a number of cruises but I think that might drive up usage, and ultimately, that is what they are looking to do.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Fitness center, pools. One complaint I did have was that there is a place onboard with limited seating that must be reserved. It provides a peaceful place to relax where you dont have to fight for a chair. There were about 400 passengers who were sailing back-to-back and who were let on before anyone else. No problem with that, however, we were one of the first non-returnng passengers to board and those b2b passengers were able to reserve ALL those spaces before anyone else got on board. Not a good look for the cruise line. I am not sure how else those reservations could be handled but.... Also scheduled a massage online prior to boarding. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that the time you select online will actually be what you get because the spa team makes modifications. That is just stupid. There are reasons you select a specific day and time. Princess: Update your computer systems. Get with the real world.

Entertainment

4 out of 5

Children's Programs

No kids with us

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Tried Club Class for the first time and found it was very worthwhile in terms of reducing waiting times for main meals and the service was excellent in the dining rooms

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Club Class Mini-suite.

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

4 out of 5

Got on and off in Ft Lauderdale

Thumbs Up 2

Princess Cays (Cruise Line Private Island)

3 out of 5

They had a fire here two weeks before we went but had repaired most of the damage. They are also now using privately hired boats to transport passengers to and from the ship. The boats are larger and therefore take more time to load and unload. Unless Princess has been forced by the island to use private transport, I would prefer using the small vessels (Princess owned) that they used to use.

Thumbs Up 3

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

5 out of 5

Did not do an excursion. Went to a beach a short distance (taxi ride) away. Pleasant day.

Thumbs Up 6

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

3 out of 5

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

4 Comments

Gwbigdog 2 years ago

Thanks for sharing

Thumbs Up 0

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christine1234 5 years ago

We were on the 2/10 Regal sailing. We had medallions, no sail cards and they worked fine except for the day were in port in Cozumel. There was about an hour delay leaving the ship due to a computer/medallion issue. Very fast boarding and easy cabin entry with the medallion. It's also nice to be able to locate your cabin mates on the ship by putting your medallion up to the ship deck diagram by the elevators. I did not use my phone on the ship.

Thumbs Up 0

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buckyboy 5 years ago

Heard a lot about the medallion. Going on our first medallion cruise next year. Hopefully all glitches will be ironed out by then.

Thumbs Up 1

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Infamous 5 years ago

Thank you for the long review taking regal princess on first cruise in April. Wondering how my experience will be. Thank you for the tips. And opinions. Hope you guys had fun.

Thumbs Up 2

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