Regal Princess Review
Rating by category
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Saw a great price on this Christmas cruise about 4 weeks before sail date and decided to grab it. We had been on Royal Princess 2 years ago and loved that ship, and Regal is the sister ship to Royal, so we knew we would like it. We had a great cruise and were overall very pleased. This was our 16th cruise, and my Husband said he thought it was his overall best cruise experience in terms of just the ship and I tend to agree. This was a cruise to the Carribean and we were mainly going to this destination to get away from the cold.
If would say the strong points were the ship is in great condition and beautiful, and the overall attitude of the staff on the ship was excellent. Although we did not go to all the entertainment, the shows we saw were excellent, especially the Beatle Maniacs group. They also did a great job of accommodating my Husband's gluten free diet. Plus, we got all of this for what I thought was truly a surprisingly great deal for a Christmas cruise which generally go for a premium. I think this ship was undersold for some reason, I assume because it had a stop at Puerto Rico and St. Thomas, and people were staying away from those ports because of the hurricane damage. However everything seemed okay in those ports where we were, although I understand that in the remote areas of those islands, that was not the case.
If there were weak points, I would say they were:
Cabin Review
Deluxe Balcony
Not sure of the exact category, but this was a deluxe balcony cabin. The main difference between a balcony and a deluxe balcony is that the deluxe is just a few square feet bigger, (12 or so I think) and it has a couch whereas the regular balcony has chairs I think. It was nice but a little smaller than I was expecting. The balcony was very small, not deep enough in my opinion, to really be of use. For this reason, I suppose, I did not see a lot of people out on their balconies as you would usually see. This cabin is on emerald floor which is deck 8 and the lowest passenger deck. The only problem with this cabin is it is directly above the back of the theater Churchill's Bar, so there was some noise at night. One night, it was particularly bad until after 2 am. The next day I complained and asked if we could be moved. They explained that there had been a private party the night before, and that it should not happen again. They offered to move us one floor up, but after they said it shouldn't be that bad again and it was toward the end of the cruise, so we decided to take our chances and stay put. Another night, it was also pretty loud, but not as bad. You could hear music every evening, but it was not a problem most nights, but it was a problem about 3 nights, and really bad one of those 3.