Regal Princess Review

One statement: 800 Chumleys taking over the adult pool, hot tubs and bars

Review for the Caribbean Cruise on Regal Princess
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nmnurse
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Nov 2016
Cabin: Balcony

This was our 12th Princess Cruise . We've always cruised with Princess. And loved it. But this cruised changed all that. First the ship. Big, understaffed, and dull. The color scheme was awful. The change in layout at all the bars meant that there was constant foot traffic thru the middle of most. No more quiet corners to relax in. The staff was sparse. Surly. downright rude in some cases. The cabin was ..eh. The need to keep a cruise card in the slot to keep the lights and TV on was bothersome to say the least. the food was awful. We did a two week cruise with a return to Fl between the weeks. It was marketed as two one week or one back to back two week cruise but the menu repeated itself week two. extremely dull to have turkey night twice. And every other meal as well. As for dining not at a large table , once the staff found out you didn't want to share with unknown people they stuck you at a table near the kitchens and gave you substandard service. Practically ignored you, plunked the food down and left you to your own devices. No water refills, no attention. Every night. The buffet was god awful. The bathroom outside its entrance stunk. As did most of the public restrooms. They wanted us to wash our hands in that disgusting washbasin outside the buffet. I refused. It was filthy, wet, and gross. The buffet layout changed with Regal. It was hard to navigate, had poor flow, caused backups and the food was cold, not palatable to look at and the areas were not kept clean. We took the stairs everywhere because elevators were never available. There was also not much in the way of shows or entertainment. People were gone to their rooms by 915 pm -because of boredom I guess. Which meant empty stretches on the lower and totally deserted top decks. The only good thing was that my husband and I made our own entertainment on the deserted top decks.

Now for the Chumleys. When any ship allows 800 or so gay men on board who are well known for the total commandeering of venues on any cruise they take -and said cruise line doesn't feel the need to warn its long time loyal cruisers about it and allow us to change our minds its not a good thing for public relations. we pay extra for trip insurance. We would have used it for that first week. These Chumleys took over the adult pool and the hot tubs -both physically is their sheer numbers -and their huge sizes - all day , every day. At night, some of our favorite bars were closed except for Chumley use. Every night that first week they were on the cruise at least one if not two bars were off limits to anyone except Chumleys.. We had to buy the sanctuary package that first week to find any space to relax. Their public displays of affection- think threesome spooning and making out in the adult pool- would not have been tolerated by the cruise line -if it had been heterosexual couples. But apparently it was ok for the Chumleys to exhibit.

To recap. The ship is too big, too understaffed, staffed by too rude uncaring and surly staff, too dull and had too bad food. And too many of one group. As a result, when we took our next cruise -from which we just returned from today - we displayed the same loyalty Princess showed us when they didn't forewarn us of the huge Chumley takeover of our cruise. After 12 plus Princess cruises, we went on the Norwegian Jewel. Great ship. Great staff. Great food. Great entertainment. Fun. Bright decor. More vried age groups. Our loyalty to Princess is broken. It will be a cold day before we go on another Princess cruise.

Cabin Review

Balcony

Cabin was average. The card in the slot to get light and TV was inconvenient -if husband wanted to go out and needed his card.

Port Reviews

Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades)

Average embark and disembark. However-Norweigan has much smoother embark and disembark programs. Even without our Platinum status boarding perk on Princess it was STILL quicker and smoother.

Princess Cays

Rented the clamshell to get out of the wind.

Costa Maya

Walked around on our own and had a blast.

Amber Cove (Puerto Plata)

Not ready for prime time. Great food and drinks. Roads were NOT ready for tourists. Washed out , muddy roads. Long long journey to get to the beach.

St. Maarten

We take a cab to Orient Beach on our own-always. We spend the whole day. And always have a great time.

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