Wonderful cruise to the British Isles on a beautiful ship with an awesome crew!! Weather was amazing as well!

Item: Regal Princess
Rating: 4.9
Author: karlgrgurich

Regal Princess Cruise Review

karlgrgurich

Contributor Level: Cruise Director

228 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 6

Helpful Votes: 81

Overall rating:

4.9 out of 5

12 Night British Isles With Orkney Islands (Southampton Roundtrip)

Sail date: June 01, 2023

Ship: Regal Princess

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: B721

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 11 months ago

Review summary

Fantastic cruise, staff, weather, and ports of call. As the port review would not come up, I’ll do it here. Stayed 4 nights in the Leonardo Hotel, Tower Bridge in London. Nice room, great amenities and very helpful staff. Easy to get anywhere with the HOHO bus, and river cruise. Enjoyed Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby, St Paul’s cathedral, and definitely the fish and chips! Guernsey was cancelled due to weather. Cork Ireland was amazing. We did the Blarney castle tour. Teddy and Chris were our guides. They were hilarious. In Dublin we did a scone baking excursion that included a drive through the beautiful countryside. Scones, jam and tea were delicious. Liverpool was in the Steps of the Fab Four. We did the early morning excursion and went to the Beatles museum first and had it to ourselves! Saw Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane, Paul and Johns boyhood homes, and Mathew street. Bucket list accomplished! Belfast Titanic exhibit was good. The city drive was interesting given the history of the area. In Glasgow we did the Easy Scottish Lochs tour. Some really beautiful spots, but was a bit too long on the bus for us. Orkney islands was picturesque. The standing stones are apparently 5000 years old! Enjoyed seeing the Italian church made out of a bunker. Edinburgh was one of our favourites. Beautiful town and castle. Difficult to navigate if you have any orthopaedic issues. In LeHavre we went to Honfleur. Quaint French town with cobblestones and lots of cafes. Very pretty!! All 4 of our friends ended up with covid. One couple reported it to medical, and were quarantined to their cabin for their last 3 days. They received FCC for those 3 days, had their excursion money refunded, were able to order off the main dining room menus, and could order anything from the bar. Well done Princess!!

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Absolute breeze. We had entered our information in the app, and were in the green lane. Arrived to the ship around 1215, showed our passports, got our medallions, and in our room by 1230, which was ready.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

We had entered all our information in the app, and had our same table in the Concerto dining room for 6 of us every night with the same waiters at the same time. Neil and Vinod were funny and engaging. The head waiter Desmond was awesome. I had a special diet and he brought the menu the night before and took my order for the next day. One day, when I didn’t go for dinner as I had a sore foot, he offered to have it delivered to my room! So kind. We did not use the specialty dining rooms, but loved all the new offerings at the International Cafe. The buffet was good as was the grill on the pool deck. Enjoyed room service and had a few meals delivered by the Ocean Now app which were correct, tasty and hot.

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

This was a very port intensive cruise, so we didn’t get to a lot of activities. My wife did obtain a one day pass for the Enclave ($44 for the day) during a port day, and enjoyed it. Found that the internet worked very well. Had no complaints. Much prefer the new system of unlimited internet usage for the cost of one device, as opposed to the old way of buying a certain amount of minutes.

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Everything we saw was very good. We saw one production show, Irish dancers, and a comedian/singer. Enjoyed them all. Also listed to the Captains Q and A and a First Officers Navigational talk. Really enjoyed those. As we were often tired at the end of the day, we retired to our room many evenings, and watched some TV. Great movie and TV selections!

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

All staff were just wonderful. Always a smile and a hello. Our cabin steward Jovet and our waiters knew our names and our likes and dislikes very quickly. Enjoyed the Captains evening and meeting senior officers.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Always clean and polished. We are accustomed to this ship and design and had no issues navigating anything.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Typical balcony cabin. Love the closet space, the comfy bed and pillows, the TV choices, and always the view!!

Ship tip

Enjoy the International Cafe, and the wake views on deck 16.

Thumbs up

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

Went smoothly except for a little glitch with a mislabeled bus…was corrected quickly and caused no issue. Took about an hour and a half to get from Southampton to Heathrow.

12 Comments

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Wonderful British Isles trip!!!

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