West and East Carribbean Cruise

Item: Regal Princess
Rating: 3.7
Author: ROJBrian

Regal Princess Cruise Review to Caribbean

ROJBrian

Contributor Level: Purser

151 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 2

Helpful Votes: 20

Overall rating:

3.7 out of 5

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

Sail date: November 17, 2019

Ship: Regal Princess

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 2 years ago

Review summary

Disappointed with more things the cruise line no longer does. No skewers in drinks, no tooth picks and mints in dining room, trying to move away from straws. We love Princess and will continue to cruise with Princess, but at some point they may cut out too much of what they used to have that we will start exploring other cruise lines, but I don't know that that will be any better. Please don't take this to mean that you should not go on Princess we already have our next cruise booked. Sorry if this seems to be a negative review, its just that it's not what it used to be. The app is not providing a place for me to review St. Thomas and St. Maarten. I enjoy St. Maarten, not the new shops right at the port, the shops "downtown" Front Street. My wife loves "Oro Diamante" and always spends a good amount of money there with Mike. Best prices on jewelry and beers while you shop. There is also a very good liquor store that has vodka we can't get at home, with samples, "Vida's"

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Excellent. We were very close to the port and from the time we left the hotel until we were in our state room, less than 30 minutes. I don't think that will ever happen again.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Main dining room takes way too long, especially if you factor in getting cleaned up, dressed up, for women, hair and makeup, wait to be seated and then wait for the food. Probably 2 to 3.5 hours, big waste of time. The buffet food can be less than warm, but good selection, can always find something. Trident Grill and Prego (?) Pizza by the pool always had good warm food. I would have given 3.5 stars, but this only allows full stars and I would not rate this as a 4 star.

Trident Grill

4 out of 5

Food is always warm and good.

Symphony Dining Room

2 out of 5

Food is OK, but not worth the amount of time it takes to get ready to wait to eat. Portions are on the small side, but they allow you to order two entrees, so that really isn't a problem. This is not limited to Symphony it goes for all of the Dining Rooms.

Prego's Pizzeria

4 out of 5

Always good. Never disappoints, but would like a loaded pizza with the "regular, common toppings."

Ice Cream Bar

4 out of 5

It could only be better if they gave more ice cream. This probably was one of the major contributors to my weight gain on the cruise.

Horizon Court

4 out of 5

Good selection of foods, but sometimes the food is not as warm as it should be.

Crown Grill

4 out of 5

Nice meals, but seems to be less than it previously was.

Crooner's Bar

4 out of 5

This is always one of our favorite places to hang, this cruise the entertainment was a little weak.

Calypso Cove

4 out of 5

Nice assortment of things to buy.

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

The fitness center was good sized although can be busy at times. Wish the spin bikes were better. The spin bikes for the classes looked better, but I didn't do that. Pools were nice. I enjoy the enrichment lectures, but the first cruise had three and the second week didn't have any other than the Cruise Director's "What its like to live/ work on a cruise ship," which was very interesting.

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Disappointed with the entertainment. On previous cruises have had better entertainment. I did not go to the stage shows, so I am not including them in this. The piano player in Crooners cranked out the music, but his singing was not the best. Other cruises the piano player has talked too much. The guitar player in Crooners was good, but not what I prefer. Abba dance party was very good. Steel drum player- very good. The two other bands were good to very good. Comedian OK, didn't see the second comedian.

Movies Under The Stars

4 out of 5

We love Movies Under The Stars, unfortunately the choices this cruise were not as good as on past cruises and if you do two one week cruises back to back, you get pretty much the same movies for the two weeks.

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Service was good to very good.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

We were in a Mini-Suite. They could add outlets by the bed and more outlets, but all in all it is very nice. The balconies on the newer ships are on the small side.

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

4 out of 5

Enjoy Ft. Lauderdale and the water taxi. We try to stay at the Hilton Marina, but it had its own issues. Love riding the water taxi down to LeTub in Hollywood and going over to Margaritaville Hotel.

Thumbs Up 1

Princess Cays (Cruise Line Private Island)

3 out of 5

I'm not all that interested with laying on a beach in the sun, but the facilities are good.

Thumbs Up 1

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

2 out of 5

The pushy people at the port make this port one that if I never go there again, I won't feel that I have missed anything. Not very impressed with this port. Would have been more interested in going to Falmouth.

Thumbs Up 1

George Town, Grand Cayman

4 out of 5

I enjoy George Town. Guy Harvey's shop, Hard Rock and Margaritaville.

Thumbs Up 2

Cozumel, Mexico

3 out of 5

No excursion. Don't really care for the shops right at the port.

Thumbs Up 1