For my wife and me, this was our 25th cruise (8th on a Princess ship). The Regal Princess is beautiful and well maintained. Even in a rough sea, the ship cruises quite smoothly. Generally speaking, we had a great time. Nevertheless, PCL and the Regal Princess have areas needing improvement.

Embarkation/Disembarkation --- Simply put, embarkation (and also disembarkation) was about as smooth, organized and quick as any of our 25 cruises. For disembarkation, the terminal was not using the mobile passport app. as it has done in the past. So, our gearing up for use of that app was wasted time. But, we nevertheless got through customs, etc. as quickly as we have ever done. We booked private transfer transportation before the cruise with a third party service for our transfers to and from the airport and the hotel (in which we stayed before the cruise). The cost was not much more than shuttles from hotels or the bus/shuttle services available at the port terminal from Princess or others. These no wait / no hassle arrangements were worthwhile.

Medallion Use --- Reportedly, our cruise was one of the first where (after many months of testing) the ship went 100% as a Medallion Class vacation/operation. All passengers appeared to have their electronic Medallions. Some things were nice about it (e.g. your cabin door unlocks as you approach it). The Medallion Net wi-fi internet service was great --- as good as, if not better than, the VOOM wi-fi service of Royal Caribbean. On the other hand, the log-in and log-out process had problems at times. My lesson learned was that I should not waste time trying to solve these problems myself. The staff at the internet café are there for that. They were helpful and available without much wait. The charges for unlimited wi-fi service is well worth it. With this wi-fi service, we were (with any one of many available apps) able to text, email, make calls and Facetime/Skype back home and anywhere else (including to each other on the ship). The Ocean Concierge app gave immediate access to our account and to information about daily events on board. The Ocean Compass app lets you locate any of your other family or group members on the ship or direct you to other desired locations (e.g. nearest restroom). Other planned/future apps were not yet available to be used. These technologies still have some “bugs”. My wife’s Medallion had to be reprogrammed, and one of our group could not get “registered” on the Ocean Compass app for him to be able to use it. Simply put, we applaud Princess for being in the lead on these technological advances, and we hope that they iron out the remaining “bugs” as soon as possible. In the meantime, you will save yourself some aggravation if you try to learn (before your Medallion cruise) as much as you can about the operation of the Princess apps and technologies. Read more