We sailed on the Regal Princess and had a great time. Our group consisted of myself and my husband. We didn't explore Ft. Lauderdale as we've departed several times from there with Princess in the past. Both embarkation and disembarkation went smoothly. Our cabin was D730 which is an aft facing premium deluxe balcony. We LOVED this stateroom! I was very anxious previous to the cruise due to what we'd read about problems with soot, plus I had a hard time finding up-to-date reviews about the issue. We had extremely minimal soot on our balcony. On the first two mornings we did have a tiny bit on the balcony. For me it wasn't a big deal because I had mentally and physically prepared for it. We always pulled our chairs and table under the over-hang at night and used beach towels to sit on the chairs. I understand that soot can be an issue depending upon wind direction etc. however other than the first two mornings we didn't notice any soot at all. We also loved the large space we had on our balcony.

The Regal is huge and beautiful. The food selection at the buffet is awesome and overwhelming at the same time...but this is a positive. We loved the hibachi grill. We found the pizza to be lacking on this ship both at Prego's and Alfredo's due to the crust being constantly overdone to our liking. (We had the best tasting pizza on the Crown Princess while sailing the Mediterranean in 2013). For entertainment we enjoyed Princess Live which was new to us. It was fun because they involved the audience in the shows they put on. We love Princess but wish they would bring in better entertainment. We've enjoyed in the past the truly talented magicians, ventriloquists, comedians and muscians that we would watch in the Princess Theater that were brought in. Now it seems that Princess only does shows with their dancers etc. obviously this saves money but lacks in diversity. The service on this ship was great. We didn't have one bad experience as far as that goes. I appreciate everything Princess does for the safety of it's passengers-especially from the health stand-point. We would do this cruise again as it was very relaxing .