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Princess Cruise Line

MS Regal Princess

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: Steve O'Rourke
# previous cruises: 4
Date of Trip: June 2, 2007
Itinerary: Hawaii

This cruise was a mixed bag. On the positive side, the service in the dining room was superlative, the room very comfortable, the room stewart was great. On the down side, the interactions with the purser's desk and the tour desk were very, very maddening, and not just for us but for a lot of people who we talked to. Whenever anyone came to them with a complaint, a question or a request, the response often ranged from irritable, to curt, to downright surly. As well, our teenage son was made to feel very uncomfortable and harassed by the "Youth Security," with the numerous adolescents on board getting followed and reprimanded constantly.

Youth Security seemed to be on a power trip and their relationship with the teenagers immediately became adversarial.

It's an older, smaller ship, but the public areas are nice enough and spacious enough. Having been on the newer ships, the pool area by comparison is much less attractive. There are numerous drink stains in the carpeting in the various areas about the ship, but I guess that comes with age. (We had a rather sizeable stain on the carpet in our cabin.) And the art and jewelry sales in the promenade gets tiring.

The service in the main dining room was excellent! Couldn't have been better. The food in there was good to very good, only two dishes in two weeks would I call outstanding. The buffet up top at the Cafe Del Sol ranged from so-so, to bad, to very bad. And the desserts in general were quite ordinary, often bland, or just plain and sugary. The ice creams are quite good, though, and twice they put out really rich, moist chocolate cakes. I would've liked to see more of that. But the worst thing of all had to be the coffee!!! Now, the coffee in the main dining room was weak and flavorless, but the coffee we got in our room every morning was absolutely foul.

The cabin was quite nice, plenty of room, good closet space, comfortable bed. And our room stewart was excellent.

Typical cruise entertainment. They had a troupe of dancers that were very good, the vocalists just OK. The band at the pool was way too loud and had a limited repertoire. I swear, if I heard Bad Bad Leroy Brown and Margaritaville one more time I was gonna scream and jump in the ocean!

As above, the biggest complaint would be the lack of activities for the teenagers and the relentless surveillance and harrassment by Youth Security. I guess it's policy on cruise ships not to allow adolescents in the discos after 11 pm. This was enforced on our ship, but there was nothing else to do and no place to go. If the reason behind this rule is the alcohol that's being served, then it's a truly dumb rule, as alcohol is being served everywhere else and in the presence of kids at all hours. And if Youth Security is there for the problem of bored and aimless youth, then this rule only worsens, or even creates the problem!

I would say to families with teenagers, don't go on this ship! I have gotten the sense that Princess would just as soon not have teenagers on their boats.