We took this cruise mainly to celebrate New Year's Eve on a cruise as we normally have done. We also wanted to experience a "new" ship on Princess since most of the ships they have are old and are showing their wear and tear. The Regal is a beautiful ship. The public areas were very clean. We enjoyed The Crooners bar, great staff!!
The layout is not as bad as others make it sound, you just need to get used to it. They do have stairs in the middle, but they're closed off for cabin decks. You can use them in the decks that are for public areas. We used them many times when the elevators were running slow.
The room is just like any other ship, who cares what size it is, we're not going to live in it!!! The balcony is small, but all you need to do is stand or sit there for a little while. We hardly use our balcony unless it's to see a new port. We have been to these ports 6 times, so this was a relaxing cruise for us.